Appreciation
by BuggyNess
Summary: The battle of the Promised Day behind them, the brothers struggle with a new foe, one that they cannot fight with their fists. An exploration of what it means to appreciate your family. Short 2-3 chapter story in which Winry gets the flu.


**6/29/14 A/N: I only meant this to be a drabble for "The Kids are All Right," but it just kept going and going as I wrote. I wanted to explore how the Resembool trio truly appreciated each other, especially in difficult times after the Promised Day. It will be short, only 2-3 chapters. **

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**Immune System**

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The slow days of fall bled into the even slower winter for Resembool. Red and orange hued leaves changed to deathly brown, withered and fell. The rolling green grass of summer transformed into bleak beige meadows anticipating the oncoming snows. Families prepared for the cold weather by canning the summer surplus and either smoking or freezing lamb and mutton raised the previous year. Stalwar's mercantile downtown carried all the canned and fresh produce they managed to import into the small burgh, but most folks took care of their own. The temperature had yet to fall cold enough to produce snow, but it still rained regardless, which spread a menacing chill that not even the toastiest iron stoves could stave away entirely.

Ed's automail port ached tremendously. Although snug and warm in the big yellow Rockbell house, the wet weather outside somehow managed to squirm its way deep into the hollows of his stump causing his bones to hurt and muscles to swell.

"Shit." He muttered and looked left then right, hoping Granny didn't hear him swear. Pinako's been taking twenty-five cenz from him every time he cursed and even though his cash was safely deposited monthly in the First Bank of Amestris, he couldn't get to it unless he traveled to East City, so the old woman kept a tally in a ledger book. He worried sometimes about the total.

"Your stump hurting, Brother?" Alphonse looked up from the alchemy book he was reading as he rested on the couch.

Since returning to Resembool the previous spring, all he could do was rest. Granny, Winry and Ed had the weakened boy on a strict physical therapy schedule so when he wasn't working on regaining muscle, he stayed exhausted. However, being sore and tired didn't keep him from noticing his brother hurt too. Alphonse closed his book and painfully raised his body up from the sofa and walked over to Edward who sat with his back to the black coal stove.

"Hey, you didn't use your crutch." Ed's eyes sparkled at his brother's achievement.

"Yeah, practicing getting around without it." The younger Elric smiled. "Look, I have a bicep, Brother!" He pushed back his long sleeve and flexed and the smallest bump appeared on his arm.

"Hard work will do that for you." Ed motioned to Al to sit in the wooden chair next to him. "Al, it's not even cold outside and this leg is killing me."

"I bet Granny has some medicine you could take. Want me to ask?" He grunted as he sat, still sore.

"Easy there, _Strong Arm_." Ed thought himself cleaver for comparing his scrawny brother to Alex Louis Armstrong. Al stuck his tongue out in protest to the reference. "Maybe tonight, if I can't sleep. The last time she gave me something, I got all foggy-headed...don't like that."

"Ah chew!" Winry waltzed in to the common room carrying a box of machine parts. She set them down on a chair and pulled a white hanky out of her work pants and blew her nose.

"Winry!" Ed yelled, annoyed she'd come in and spread her germs around Alphonse.

"Geesh, sorry. Just a sneeze." She tucked the hanky back into her pocket and picked up her box and trudged into the work shop, ignoring the boys.

"Ed, I think I'm out of the woods for getting sick. I exposed my self to a lot of people and germs this summer. Remember? I already had four colds so far." He smirked at his brother.

"Can't be too careful." Edward moved his sore leg closer to the stove and relished the relief the heat gave him.

* * *

Sunday supper consisted of fried chicken. One of their private brood sacrificed his or her lives so that Granny could roll it in egg and flour and fry it in hot oil until gloriously crunchy and golden. Canned green beans and mashed potatoes and chicken gravy rounded out the wonderful meal.

"Oh, this is so good!" Alphonse had had fried chicken a few times since coming home with his body restored, but eating became such a joy to him, especially when the food tasted so flavorful and good. He couldn't restrain his happiness and chewed each bite slowly to ensure he savored every last morsel. When he first ate with them, Granny, Winry and Ed were amused at his table behavior. But now used to it, they let him be to enjoy all the sensations of eating.

"Yeah, so good." Ed mumbled as he greedily shoveled mashed potatoes in his mouth. After warming up his leg this morning, he spent the day chopping wood and establishing a nice pile next to the house so they could easily get the fuel when the temperatures fell. All the hard work made him ravenous with hunger. However, despite the buttery, salty goodness gracing his tongue, he was pretty sure some milk or cream was used to make it. He only worried for a split second about the dairy crossing his lips and went right back into filling his mouth.

"It makes this old woman feel good to have two hard working boys enjoy her cooking!" Pinako took a corner of her apron and cleaned the fry grease from her eyeglasses then surveyed the young men stuffing their faces with her supper. "I wouldn't feed you so well if you didn't work hard around here, ya know." She didn't joke. Being lazy resulted in cold lamb sandwiches and although filling, they weren't as good as hot fried chicken and all the fixings. She noticed her granddaughter picking at her mashed potatoes. "Anything wrong with it, Winry?"

"She's crazy if she doesn't like it..." Ed piped in with a full mouth before the girl could respond. It earned him an angry eyebrow from the mechanic.

"No, it tastes as good as always...just, my stomach's a little upset." She continued to pick and sculpt the potatoes with her fork. "Ah chew!" Her sneeze broke the silence and she grabbed her hanky, turned away from the table and blew her nose.

"Winry!" Ed scolded her again for sneezing near his brother, but when he saw her nose was red, he started to wonder if she was getting a cold herself.

"It's ok, Brother." Al stopped eating long enough to protest Edward's over-protectiveness.

"If you're not feeling well, you can be excused, girl." Pinako wasn't worried. This damp weather bred colds and fevers. "Good thing I have a nice chicken carcass. I'll make you some broth from the bones and it'll make you right as rain." She continued to eat her meal as the mechanic got up and pushed her chair in.

"Thank's Granny." Winry began to pick up her plate to take to the sink but Alphonse interrupted.

"No. I'll get that, Winry." He put out a hand to stop her from taking the dirty dish.

"Al, it's my turn to do dishes tonight." She began to reel back for another sneeze and grabbed her handkerchief out in time to catch it.

"Hey!" Ed protested from behind a chicken leg.

"Shhhh Brother!" Al took the plate from the table and scraped its contents in the trash bin. "Winry, get upstairs and in bed. It's obvious that you're sick." He placed the dish in the sink and began running hot water to fill the basin.

"Ah, I'm not a baby. Just a cold, that's all." She wiped her red nose and drug herself upstairs in defeat.

"Keep those germs upstairs!" Ed yelled, mouth full of food.

"Brother!"

"All right, you two. I'm full. Better get those bones in some water for the broth." Pinako joined Alphonse at the counter, leaving Edward finishing off his meal.

* * *

Nighttime fell as usual, and despite the early onset of darkness, the rain failed to abate. Pinako excused herself to go to bed a while ago and the boy's hadn't seen hide nor hair of Winry since dinner. So, they settled into their late evening routine: washed up and pajama-fied, Ed and Al lay on their respective beds reading already read alchemy texts to each other and chatting.

"You shouldn't scold Winry so much, my immune system is getting really strong, Brother." Al's voice carried sleepiness from a day of hard therapy. "I've been eating lot's of local honey and drinking those terrible teas Mei Chang sent."

"She knows better, Al." Ed's bluntness signaled an end to this line of talk. "Huh?"

A sound carried into their room from the bathroom in the hallway. It was the loud and obviously painful moans and gurgles of retching. The boy's made yucky faces upon realization of this, but none-the-less slowly got up and listened at their door.

"I think that's Winry." Al scrunched his nose up at the horrible noise the small girl was making a few feet from them. "You'd, you'd better check on her."

"Me?" I don't want to be part of that!" Ed waived his hands. "You go!"

"Uh, me?" Al backed away. "No, no, I shouldn't be around those germs, remember?"

"Oh, NOW you're worried about getting sick." Ed pushed his brother out of the way and turned the knob to exit. "Wussy." He walked across the hall to the bathroom, his brother peering from their room. He gently knocked on the wooden door. "Winry?"

"Go away." She moaned.

"Um, just, just checking...can I get you anything?" He looked back at his brother and shrugged his shoulders. "Like a mop?" He whispered under his breath. Alphonse heard and snickered.

"Can you, can you go get Gran?"

"Sure." He turned to walk down the hallway to get Pinako. The sudden worried tone of her voice concerned the former alchemist but Winry was a Rockbell and she could still beat him to a pulp. The girl ate steel and crushed weaker men under her feet. He told himself this was just a stomach bug. Al suffered a few of them when he started eating solid food. Maybe Win just ate something bad? His worn knuckles rapt upon the old woman's door. "Granny?"

Soft house slipper covered footsteps carried toward the doorway and the small woman sleepily opened her door. "What's the matter?" She put on her glasses.

"Uh, Winry's in the bathroom throwing up." Ed thumbed over his shoulder. "She asked me to get you." He moved aside as the elderly woman deftly maneuvered the short distance to the bathroom. "Do you need me to help?" Pinako didn't answer but entered the bathroom and closed the door. Edward made his way back to his own doorway with Alphonse. After a few minutes, they heard the toilette flush, then running water in the sink. The door creaked open and Pinako's worried face poked out.

"Ed." The seriousness of the old woman startled both boys. "Get your brother downstairs. He's going to need to sleep in the patient room for a bit."

"What?" Ed questioned.

"Don't dawdle." Granny snapped. "Get him downstairs and I need you to bring back my bag, the big black one with medical supplies...and some water, lots of water. There's an empty pitcher in the cupboard." Ed just looked wide-eyed at his brother. "Are you dumb? Get moving!" Her anger startled the blond and he scurried downstairs, tugging his brother with him.

The boys made their way to the patient room adjacent to the kitchen, a room Ed last used when Hohenheim stayed at the house months earlier. He opened the door for Alphonse who entered.

"Do you think she's really sick?" Al couldn't hide his worry.

"It's probably a stomach virus Granny doesn't want you to catch...don't worry little brother." Ed smiled and pilfered through a bureau drawer, pulling out clean sheets. He tossed them at Al, the linen hitting the boy's face. "I'll leave you to it. Don't worry, we just don't want you catching this, ok?" His golden eyes searched his brother's, hoping Alphonse wasn't upset for being kept away.

"No, of course." Al's kind eyes reflected his understanding of the situation and that everyone just cared for his well being. "If I can do anything, let me know."

"I will, Al. Good night." Ed pulled the door closed. He made his way to the surgery room and found the big black doctor's bag that Pinako kept stocked in case she was needed by a family in the village. Picking it up, he marveled at its weight and that the tiny grandma could even carry it. Pinako was Rockbell, she spit fire and kicked ass. He was sure that's where she got the strength to carry the thing. Next, Edward searched several cupboards until he found the large glass pitcher, one they used in the summer to serve sweet tea and lemonade. Although the old lady didn't ask, he figured cold water would be better than tap so he opened the freezer and grabbed the icepick and began hacking away chunks of ice off the recently delivered block, filling a third of the pitcher. Soon, ice deliveries would stop, Winry was already blabbering on about installing a new "ice maker" in the electric refrigerator. He hoped she'd not blow the thing up. Making his way over to the sink, he filled the heavy glass up with water, bent down and picked up the black bag by it's worn wooden handle and carried both upstairs.

The sound of coughing assaulted the young man's ears as he rose to the top of the stairs. "Granny? Where to you want this?" He stood outside the open bathroom to see Winry slumped over the toilette dry heaving into the bowl. Pinako stood, holding her hair back and rubbing her back.

"Take it in her room and come back. She's going to need your help." She didn't look up from her granddaughter as she muttered the words.

Ed did as he was told and came back quickly. The girl lay with her head on the side of the seat, breathing heavily. Her blue eyes caught the young man's eyes, now wide with worry.

"Granny, Ed doesn't have to see this. It's gross!" Winry muttered as Pinako took a wet washcloth and wiped her mouth.

"Girl, can you even walk out of here?"

"Don't know." She took hold of the adjacent sink and tried to pull her body to standing and failed. "Nope."

"Edward, can you help her?" She motioned to the boy to assist and he came in, lacing his right arm under Winry's right shoulder and hoisting her to standing.

"One step at a time. 'kay?"

"Please, this is just a stomach thing...I'm fine." As she took her first step, Winry fell, but before she knew it, Ed swooped her up like she was a feather and carried her into the hallway and through her door then set her gently on her bed.

"Winry, you're burning up." He felt her forehead with the back of his right hand and remembered his mother taking his temperature the very same way at least hundreds of times when he was a little boy. "Granny, do you have anything in that for a fever?" He pointed to the black leather bag perched on the work desk.

"Let's see how hot this hot-head really is." Pinako chuckled and withdrew a mercury thermometer from her bag, she shook it violently and placed the tip in Winry's mouth and then monitored the wall clock.

"You really are a pain in the butt." Ed teased as he helped the mechanic back under her covers, knowing she couldn't talk back with the thermometer in her mouth. "I mean, poor Al, had to sleep on that hard ass bed downstairs I'm not getting any sleep at all taking care of you..." He knew she couldn't be so sick because her growl and angry eyes were proof her temper still existed.

"Two minutes, kids." Pinako withdrew the thermometer from the girl's pale lips and held it up to the lamp to read the gauge. "Thirty-nine degrees centigrade." She placed the contaminated glass on the bedside table, knowing she'd be using it again. "Girl, diamonds to dough-nuts you have influenza."

"That's bad, isn't it?" Ed sat at the foot of the bed while the old woman pilfered through her bag and brought out a brown packet.

"Can be, but it depends on the strain." She ripped the paper and dumped the contents – a white power into a glass Winry always kept by her bedside. Next she poured some of the water from the pitcher, just enough to moisten the substance and she swirled the glass around with a twitch of her wrist. "Here, get this all down." She placed the glass to Winry's lips and helped her drink the bitter medicine.

"Ick." Winry made a face but swallowed. "Acetylsalicylic acid?" She smacked her dry lips trying to get the bitter taste to dissipate.

"Aspirin, huh?" Ed remarked.

"Yes, Edward." Pinkako smiled, she knew Edward most likely knew the chemical composition of the drug from his alchemy training, but she felt great pride in her granddaughter for knowing the medicine by proper name _and _by taste. She tossed the used paper into the trash bin and reached into the bag and brought out two cloth masks. Pinako donned one and handed the other to Ed. "From now on, we wear these in this room, got it?"

"Uh, yeah." Ed covered his nose and mouth with the cloth and tied the straps around the back of his head. He didn't like wearing it, but could tell the old lady was serious about it.

"And, you will wash your hands with soap and hot water before entering this room and upon leaving this room, got it?" It was more a command than a question.

"Yes ma'am." He may now have a good two feet in height over the old woman, but she still scared him sometimes.

"Good. She'll need another packet in four hours. And, she'll need to keep drinking lots of water...which is going to be hard because she keeps throwing up." She put her hand to her face and paced in thought. "We'll have to do this like we do for infants or I'm going to have to start an intravenous drip."

"Huh?" Winry managed as her grandmother brought a rubber handled dropper syringe from the bag.

"Two droppers full of water every few minutes should keep her hydrated." She handed the dropper to Ed. "That'll be your job squirt." She started giggling at the double meaning.

"Me?" Ed began to protest. Why did he have to be the one missing his sleep?

"Yes you." She began walking toward the door. "I have a feeling we are in for a tough few days and this old doctor needs her sleep!" She shot the two a serious look. "Wake me if her temperature goes up and don't forget, another packet in four hours." She shut the door.

"Sorry about this." Winry attempted a smile but her stomach made a horrendous gurgling sound and before she could warn him, she retched up over the side of her bed.

"Great." The young man sighed and sidestepped the watery goo on the hardwood and left to retrieve some towels to clean it up.

"I think I just threw up the medicine." She fell back on her pillow in defeat.

"Well, then you're gonna have-ta take some more!" Ed used a large towel to wipe up the vomit and wrapped it yuck side down and set it aside to take downstairs later. He marched with heavy footsteps back to the bathroom and washed his hands, then returned the same way.

"You're probably keeping Alphonse awake with all your stomping." Winry had to get in a jab.

"Really? And you think anyone could sleep through all your loud hoarking and yacking?" He rifled through the bag and found the box of aspirin powders Pinako had opened earlier. "You better hold this one down." Edward ripped the top off the paper packet and poured the white powder in Winry's glass, then splashed in cold water. He swirled the glass and handed it to the smiling blonde.

Winry took the glass with a huff and downed the medicine a second time and set the glass back on her nightstand. "You probably want to bring me a basin...and some soda crackers if you don't want me to throw up again." She fell back into her soft pillow. Edward didn't move, he just scowled at her and the thought of traveling once more downstairs and washing his hands yet again. "Well?"

"Yeah, yeah...if you weren't sick, you know none of this would be happening, right?" He trudged his weary body toward the bedroom door once more stopping only to turn the handle. He was sure Winry was getting a kick out of his servitude, but deep down, if it make her feel better, he'd still accommodate her.

"I know." Her stomach churned again. She didn't feel like throwing any more sass.

"Hmph." Ed grumbled and went downstairs _yet again_ to fetch the basin. After rifling through a cupboard in the surgery room, he found the tin kidney bean shaped container and walked into the pantry and found a sleeve of wax-paper wrapped soda crackers. He tossed the crackers in the for-now clean vomit basin and step-clanked on his metal foot back upstairs. After stopping at the bathroom to wash his hands, he entered Winry's room. "Okay, here you go..." The sight of the mechanic sleeping stopped him from finishing his sentence. Edward silently slipped to to her bedside and set the basin down on the nightstand. He readjusted the cloth mask covering his mouth and nose and pulled up the chair from her workbench until he could sit right next to her as she slept.

Ed didn't like what he saw. Winry was pale, like a sheet hanging on the line-her face had no color. Instead of sleeping peacefully, she occasionally grimaced and scrunched her nose. Had she not been ill, he may have adored the faces she made, but now, now they worried him.


End file.
